Missing serial number and model in bios

recreator665 · September 23, 2019

Hi all.

So few months ago I had a problem with my laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad Y700) it just shut down and didn't even turn on, so I did a mistake and took the laptop to some local lab.

The guy was good and did the fix and now all good.

But few months after I have got my self a new m.2 SSD so I replaced the one I already had and thought it will be nice to have a fresh OS on it.
So that's what I did.

Backed up the important files.
Wiped clean the SSD I had installed.
Installed the new m.2 SSD.

Ran fresh new win 10 installation... Had few problems with it but it was just a faulty USB stick.

After a successful OS installation I have noticed that the OS doesn't activate, and in the activation tab it was saying weight few days the servers may be overloaded with previous requests.

So a week passed by and nothing.
So I went into the BIOS to check if all is good?!?

As I found out the SN / MODEL / OS Key are wiped clean from bios (WTF)

So I called the lab the laptop was fixed in and the guy basically said that it's not his fault when they gave me the laptop all was good...
i can bring it for check but it will cost..... I don't want to pay for something they did and taking the laptop to lenovo service will all so be not free.

So google here we go...
I tried to flash the bios my self with AMIDEWIN / EfuEfix64 / AMIDEDOS / wflash / flash2 / DMIEDIT utils / and everything else I found on the web...
The lenovo support website doesn't have specific drivers for my model but do have others (Which I tried with no luck).

Tried from CMD with admin right and freeDOS boot but nothing works
I get SMI port is not available or SMBIOS error or system not supported etc...

For 2 days now I'm spending my evenings with this.

So does anyone know's or can help to put back my SN and model into bios? So Microsoft can recognize my laptop and activate my WIN 10 version?

And of course because of this issue some lenovo tools ain't working as well as they can not identify my laptop....

So any help will be appreciated...

Thank you all.

iamdarkyoshi · September 23, 2019

They likely found a bios dump from another machine online and flashed it using an SPI programmer. The BIOS chip holds all that info, and I suppose they found a dump of another machine which had those values stripped from it.

I've had to do repairs like this at the store I work at (on the same model laptop too). Sadly all I was able to do was make the machine have the IDs from another machine, since that's what the dump of the BIOS chip contained.

Best bet for activation would probably be to use the windows 7 key off a machine you no longer use anymore, since the key stored in your BIOS is gone.

recreator665 · September 24, 2019

22 hours ago, iamdarkyoshi said:

They likely found a bios dump from another machine online and flashed it using an SPI programmer. The BIOS chip holds all that info, and I suppose they found a dump of another machine which had those values stripped from it.

I've had to do repairs like this at the store I work at (on the same model laptop too). Sadly all I was able to do was make the machine have the IDs from another machine, since that's what the dump of the BIOS chip contained.

Best bet for activation would probably be to use the windows 7 key off a machine you no longer use anymore, since the key stored in your BIOS is gone.

Well the activation isn't what really bothers me (but it would be nice to have) as the missing SN and model in BIOS.

iamdarkyoshi · September 24, 2019

3 hours ago, recreator665 said:

Well the activation isn't what really bothers me (but it would be nice to have) as the missing SN and model in BIOS.

Sadly those are likely gone forever, unless you can get ahold of lenovo tools that aren't supposed to leave the factory, and you can get the BIOS into a mode that accepts being programmed...